Review Summary: The strangest thing I've ever loved
It's a gray and ugly day outside, I realize as I'm walking back from class. The type of day where nothing good happens. I check the mail slot to see the usual assortment of ads and a slim brown package. Oi, my Oasis CD already came in!? I hurry to my room and tear open the package, only to see an unexpected gray cover to the album.
Oh yeah. Not Oasis. It's that album I ordered last week when I saw it on sale and read a good review. Oh well. I decide to pop it in the CD player and give it a listen.
Said she's got it all
Said she's got it all
I don't wanna be the one to tell he that she don't
What the f#%& is this? It's not singing. He's croaking like a frog. I thought this album was supposed to be good. Before the first song is over, I take it out of the CD player, put it back in the case, and forget about it until that night when I'm reading album reviews. I look it up --- what's it called? Make Up the Breakdown.
Huh, another website singing the album's praises. Maybe I should give it another try. The single, Bandages, is getting some high praise. I give it a listen.
These bandages cover more than scrapes
Cuts and bruises from regrets and mistakes
Wow. Bizarre. But I like this song. It's, in a twisted way, sort of beautiful. Congratulations, Hot Hot Heat. Bandages just earned your CD a full spin-through. I skip back to the first track on the album, turn the volume down, press play, and pull out my homework for the evening.
When it's done, I start the CD over. The murky but upbeat sound feels just right for the day, I decide. I'm keeping this music on.
And like that, I'm addicted. The whole album, whole sound starts to make sense to me. I listen to it a full three times in my first day, once again the next day, and a few more times throughout the week.
It's exuberant poetry, a perfect mix of throwback rock and hip youthfulness. The songs are nutty but have the quick familiarity that separates classic tracks from good tracks.
Blue collar
White collar
I don't know so I gotta holler
Oh, oh godd***it I think I've lost it
Oh god-godd***it, I think I've lost you
The lyrics are delirious, the tunes are odd and wonderful, and the whole presentation just feels right. Every song wins me over, and the package is unpretentiously brief. Things just click.
It feels like a greatest hits album because nearly every track feels great. Bandages was one of the best songs of the year, Oh, Godd***it the catchiest and silliest track, This Town a catchy and syncopated riff, etc.
I usually like my music straightforward. If it's too weird or too experimental it won't stay in my CD player for longer than a few minutes. But Hot Hot Heat doesn't feel forced or weird for the sake of weird. It's weird for the sake of great music.
You've got to save us, S.O.S
I'm out of gas, I'm out of touch
Shipwrecked ferry, marry me, or take me out to lunch.
Save us, S.O.S.
And when the end of the year rolled around, and it was time for me to make my year-end favorite albums list, I thought back to that gray afternoon, the gray package in my mail, the gray and murky sound it has, and how brightly and colorfully it shined once I gave it a proper chance. And I knew what had to be #1 on my list.
That Oasis album? Didn't even make my top 20.
Sinking in way too deep.
I won't care what they think
Make Up the Breakdown isn't perfect, and is a bit too offbeat to earn a "Classic" rating. But it's one of my all-time favorites, a truly insightful bastion of crazy-hip-sorta-throwback garage rock. It changed my perspective on how weird and out-there good music can be. I recommend it to everyone. Later albums only proved to me that this band is best when they're doing their own thing and not trying to earn a pop following.
